Growin' Up Gregory

In this month's edition of Independent Banker, ICBA Chairman, Preston Kennedy shared his top three concerns facing community banks. The Federal Reserve's role in real-time payments. Housing finance reform. Credit union poaching of community banks. Below, allow me to interpret this from banker talk into a more understandable and applicable version of how it may affect your financial life. First, from CFO.com - "In a long-awaited move to speed up the U.S. payment system, the Federal Reserve has announced it will develop a real-time service that would eventually link more than 10,000 banks and credit unions across the country." It appears that for the next 4-5 years, small banks won't be playing on a level field with the big boys as there will likely be a tiered system of payment processing from the Fed. This won't affect most people's daily activities as transactions continue to increase in speed.  Just realize that the smaller companies and com...

How would you feel if we were going to race in 100 yard dash (the length of a football field) and I told that I was going to get to start at the 21 yard line while you had to start at the goal line? Or what if I we were going to do 100 pushups?  Except for yep, you guessed it...I'll be starting on 21  while you start at 0. Or what if I our boss offered to pay both of us $100 for doing the exact same job.  But then he took $21 from you for taxes while I kept my entire $100. Would that seem fair?  Who do you think would win the race or pushup contest?  Who would have more money even though we both did the same job?   It seems odd to me that in this world of 'equality for all' that businesses offering services in the same field would be treated unfairly.  Now I understand competitive advantage, market share, niche business and all of that.  But for Congress to outright give one type of business which competes directly against others ...